Marathon Series: The Estonian unicorn company Veriff

Kaarel Kotkas, Veriff, B2B, European Founder, International Founders, SaaS (software as a service)

I’m here in Estonia because I feel like we’ve gotten too comfortable in America. Everyone seems to just be focused on the four or five companies that seem to control everything.

I want to learn from a place that supports entrepreneurship and technology at such a critical level.

Kaarel Kotkas is the founder of Veriff which helps banks, marketplaces, and other online businesses start trusting relationships with customers.

Kaarel Kotkas

Veriff

Kaarel Kotkas is the founder of Veriff which helps banks, marketplaces, and other online businesses start trusting relationships with customers.

Andrew: Hey there, freedom fighters. My name is Andrew Warner. I’m the founder of Mixergy where I interview entrepreneurs, about how they built their business. And I do it for an audience of real entrepreneurs. I’m here in Estonia. Why Estonia? Number one, I feel like we in America have gotten a little too comfortable. We were the ones who were used to innovating everything, and then the rest of the world copying. And so, we had this sense of, we just have to look at ourselves. Why should we look out at the rest of the world? The rest of the world is looking at us.

And then some changes happened. And I think they can be exemplified in the bike sharing world where bike sharing didn’t originate in the U.S., it originated in China. It was entrepreneurs who noticed what was happening in China that said, “How about bringing this to the U.S.?” started making it more available. And what I realized is there so many more interesting approaches to...

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